Featured Publications

John Hogan and John Rowley Named Co-Chairs of Holland & Knight's National White Collar Defense Team

MIAMI and WASHINGTON, D.C. – John Hogan and John Rowley have been named co-chairs of the firm's national White Collar Defense Team. They will lead a team of more than 50 lawyers and professionals who are experienced in corporate compliance programs, internal investigations, anti-money laundering laws and compliance, and white collar defense.

More

Holland & Knight's National Media and Communications Team Achieves Significant Victory in Groundbreaking Defamation Lawsuit

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Holland & Knight's national Media and Communications team celebrated a significant victory recently in the California Court of Appeal, which vacated a trial court order compelling the deposition of a journalist being sued for libel. The ruling clears the way for the dismissal of the underlying libel lawsuit and the recovery of defense fees.

More

Search Our Library

Search

  • Printer friendly
  • Email this page to a friend
  • Generate a PDF version of this page
Environment
Newsletter - Third Quarter 1999
 
In this Issue...
Dep Y2K Enforcement Policy
 
 September 1, 1999
 
Rory C. Ryan- Orlando

Within the past few months, the State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) developed a new Y2K Enforcement Policy. The goal of the policy is to encourage the testing of equipment with embedded computer chips that could fail because of year 2000 computer disruptions. The Policy seeks to avoid failure of these systems, which failure could result in releases, but the Policy also accounts for relief from certain penalties because of a release if good faith efforts were taken to prevent environmental violations. The DEP's Y2K Policy is very similar to the EPA approach.

Regulated facilities have the burden to demonstrate they satisfied eight criteria for the Y2K enforcement Policy to apply. The criteria can be summarized as follows:

  • Testing protocols are designed in advance of the equipment-testing period and a real effort to evaluate Y2K compliance, not merely to circumvent environmental compliance, is demonstrated
  • Any potential violations were caused by the Y2K equipment tests
  • Potential violations caused by the testing were necessary to determine the effectiveness of Y2K-related modifications, part of a comprehensive testing program to correct Y2K deficiencies, performed at least 30 days in advance of Y2K dates in question, and the shortest possible test time was used
  • All violations ceased at the end of the testing or were immediately corrected
  • Any releases are expeditiously remediated
  • All reporting obligations were timely met
  • Any re-testing conducted prior to the Y2K dates in question met all the criteria in the Policy
  • The facility fully cooperates with the DEP

In sum, the DEP is encouraging regulated facilities to prepare for the year 2000 by recognizing the potential for inadvertent releases and encouraging the checking of specific components of systems designed to protect the environment for Y2K readiness. Any questions about implementing the new Policy should be directed to the State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Office of General Counsel. Now is the time to make sure you qualify for the reduction or elimination of civil penalties that may otherwise apply from environmental violations caused during system testing.